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Sunday, January 14, 2007

What are they teaching my 6th grader?

***I had to edit the title as I notice the original title was getting a few strange hits to it having to do with sex education, that is really sad*****

I know strange topic but this is what Izzak had this week. I am not sure why they feel that 11 yr olds need to learn the terms and anatomy of both the male and female reproductive system yet but wouldn't it make sense to use a male teacher?

Whats the story? Well lets see. This Monday they had the school nurse (health teacher?) I am not sure which as she is the school nurse and the person to teach the individual classes. They were smart enough to split boys and girls up. I mean that is a no brainer but honestly did they think it would go smoothly taking 80+ 11 yr old boys in one classroom with a female teacher explaining the female and male reproductive systems and some other things I am a little confused about since my 11 yr old boy was not listening well enough to really get it. A friend of mine has a daughter at the same school who came home saying some weird things also that kind of have us worried so she is requesting the materials and such to be sent to her so we can go over what was taught.

I understand maybe teaching puberty ed in the 6th grade since some of them are starting that (apparently they do that in the 4th grade with 9 and 10 yr olds!) but from what we have heard it was a lot more then that. I also understand that some parents aren't comfortable talking about those issues with their kids but I think we should first be informed when it is happening, which didn't happen, and be offered the information they are giving before it is given, which they didn't do, at least so that I know what they said when my confused son comes home with more questions. Also the point is I am pretty open with my kids to discuss those topics when they come up and when I feel it is appropriate (my parents weren't at all, but I feel it is important. I just want to know what my 11 yr old is being taught.

Okay so the problem I kind of hinted at earlier in this post was the issue of a female teacher with 80+ boys. Does any one else see a possible problem with that? I would even before if I knew anything about it. Apparently these boys behaved the way most 11-12 yr old boys behave when puberty or male and female body parts are brought up! They were bad! I don't know if I would call it unusual basically they were talking out loud and giggling and making other comments and the teacher couldn't handle them. She walked out of the classroom in the middle of class and told the principal she refused to teach any of them anymore. After this they had a male teacher come in and basically (well as Izzak and another boy put it) yelled at them all for being so bad, then the vice principal then the Principal. OK seems a bit of overkill on the yelling to me. Honestly did they expect them to act the same as the girls? They also had to all write appology letters to the teacher (I am ok with this) they had a lunch detention and several other punishments. I just think there was a little overkill on this especially since it probably could have been handled better to begin with. Also as Izzak puts it not all of the boys were in on it mostly a seperate group of boys that he could name specifically who are also boys who tend to be difficult anyway. But since these boys caused enough roucus all boys were equally disciplined.

So my next issue goes to the fact this is the school nurse who when Izzak went to the office on Thursday complaining that his stomach hurt (which the school is under instructions to call me because he actually has a physical problem there that I need to know whenever he complains) she told him his temp was normal and he was fine and to go back to class. One problem is that no one called me and that is important for them to do, but since no one called me what is there definition of normal because if he had a 98.6 temp then it was not normal for him, his average temp has always run around 96.7 averaged so that would mean he may not have had a normal temp right? Anyway it makes me feel that one she was not being appropriate since she knew he was in the class but also she did not call me as instructed to do everytime. I don't think it is to much to ask that they call me, really the old school had him call me so I could ask the questions I need to know what it might be and if I needed to do something about it.

Anyway so there is another rant I hate doing that but I am just irritated by it. I am just tired of the schools thinking it is their responsiblity to decide what needs to be taught to my children when they know some parents may not feel it is appropriate. When I get the information from the school I may write another post on it depending on what it was.

3 people had something to say:

Emma in Canada said...

My daughter did this sex ed class last year in Grade 5. A note was sent home saying that they would be learning about this and that they could be excused if you wanted. It also said they would be taught "in accordance with our Catloic values." Which sort of scared me, because I have always told my kids it is okay if people are gay and that masturbation is something most children try and I didn't want that to be brought into question. Anyway, I talked to the teacher and all was fine. They divided the kids into boys and girls and had a female teacher talk to the girls and a male to the boys. They were given a booklet to bring home and all Taylor really said was that they talked about girls parts way more than boys and vice versa. All in all, it went very well. Oh, and they didn't get to watch the movie, because it was from the 70s and not deemed suitable. Probably the same one I saw in Gr. 5!

That Chick Over There said...

When I was a girl they had a male teacher for the boys and a female teacher for the girls for such things. It seemed to work okay.

my4kids said...

Yeah I really wish they had done it that way with a male teacher for the boys and female for the girls it would make a lot more sense and I don't think there would have been so much of a problem with the boys. Also the boys probably would have behaved better since the male teachers are a little better at handling that many boys.